Conventional light transmission systems used within automotive vehicles use a bulb and reflector system. In a bulb and reflector system, a filament of the bulb is placed at or near a focal point of the reflector. Typically, in an automotive application, a conventional bulb and reflector system collects and reflects only about thirty percent of the light emitted from the bulb filament.
Bulb and reflector systems have several disadvantages including aerodynamic and aesthetic styling which is limited by the depth of the reflector. For interior applications, scarce package space is used by the depth of the lighting package. Additionally, thermal energy given off by the bulb during operation must be considered in the development of the components. This is particularly true for lighting systems within an automotive vehicle such as instrument panel lights.
Fiber optic systems for light distribution have been explored by automotive manufacturers. Such systems have the advantage of locating the light source in a central location and distributing light through fiber optics to their desired location. To provide illumination for such systems, laser diodes have been proposed. Laser diodes are formed on a large wafer in rows. The rows are referred to as bars. To direct light into a single larger fiber, an array of fibers are typically used. The array of fibers are butt coupled to the individual diode cavities of the wafer. The individual fibers are then coupled together to feed a single larger fiber.
Providing a number of fibers butt coupled to the array of diodes, however, is very inefficient and is labor intensive to assemble.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an efficient light collector that is also easy to assemble.